Ian Clement: he's resigned

Ian Clement, Deputy Mayor for Government and External Relations, has resigned from the Greater London Authority (GLA) with immediate effect. He tendered his resignation to the Mayor of London this morning following the discovery of further discrepancies in the use of his corporate credit card. The Mayor has accepted Mr Clement's resignation. His position will be filled in due course.

Clement's letter to the Mayor:

Dear Boris,

Having considered my position over the weekend and in light of our conversation this morning I am formally tendering my resignation as Deputy Mayor for Government and External Relations.

It has been a pleasure to work for you and I am sorry that I have let you down and deflected away from the excellent work you and indeed your team are doing in delivering for Londoners.

Thank you for your letter of resignation, which I accept with immediate effect.

As you know, I was extremely angry at the liberties you took with your corporate credit card; but last week I made the essential distinction between behaviour that is crass and anything that amounts to dishonesty or deception. In the light of the further discrepancies in your expenses that have emerged this morning, it is clear to both of us that your position is untenable.

Thank you for all your hard work in the year you have spent here. You played a major part in helping to extend the Freedom Pass for 24 hours across London, and in pioneering Open London, and in launching the City Charter.

Best wishes,

Yours ever,

Boris Johnson

Mayor of London

I thought the morning's silence was ominous. The thing that strikes you first is - as commenter IanB4 observes below - the uncharacteristic anger of Boris's words. Perhaps he concluded that being unwilling to either sack or fully back Clement left him looking over-lenient and also ensured that the issue would rumble on and on.

I don't yet know what the "further discrepencies" are. My immediate thought was that some of the items paid for with the credit card that had previously been deemed not "personal" - those lunches and drinks with Tory councillors - have been reassessed. But the Mayor's office tells me that internal inquiries "have cast doubt on the veracity of some of the specific claims on the card." I think you can unspin that one for yourselves.

Len Duvall, leader of the Labour Group on the London Assembly and a member of the committee that was due to question Clement on Wednesday believes that unanswered questions remain. He tells me he's discovered that Clement's misuse of his GLA card began last October and that he was "advised then not to do it but he kept on. Why was this allowed?"

He added: "Boris is quick to reach judgments about others and he talks a lot about transparency, but as we've seen from the Damian Green business and his conduct over some of his appointments, he doesn't do things by the rules. If he doesn't, it's no surprise when others around him don't either."